Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Samuel 18:14
Then said Joab, I may not tarry thus with thee. And he took three darts in his hand, and thrust them through the heart of Absalom, while he [was] yet alive in the midst of the oak.
14. three darts ] Since the word used means elsewhere rods or staves (Exo 21:20; 2Sa 23:21), and the wounds inflicted were not at once mortal, it seems that Joab struck Absalom brutally with pointed wooden staves, the first weapons which came to hand, in fact in a kind of way impaled him as a traitor, and left his squires to give him the coup de grce.
through the heart ] Not literally through his heart, for the blows did not kill him outright; but into the midst of his body.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I may not tarry … – i. e., lose time in such discourse.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 14. I may not tarry thus with thee] He had nothing to say in vindication of the purpose he had formed.
Thrust them through the heart of Absalom] He was determined to make sure work, and therefore he pierced his heart.
Joab should have obeyed the king’s commandment: and yet the safety of the state required the sacrifice of Absalom. But independently of this, his life was quadruply forfeited to the law: –
1. In having murdered his brother Amnon.
2. In having excited an insurrection in the state.
3. In having taken up arms against his own father, De 21:18; De 21:21.
4. In having lain with his father’s concubines, Le 18:29. Long ago he should have died by the hand of justice; and now all his crimes are visited on him in his last act of rebellion. Yet, in the present circumstances, Joab’s act was base and disloyal, and a cowardly murder.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
I may not tarry thus with thee; I must not lose time in contending with thee till I let the occasion slip.
Through the heart of Absalom; not properly so called, for he was yet alive after these wounds, and was slain, 2Sa 18:15; but through his middle, as the word heart is oft used, as Psa 46:2, and that too not exactly, but more largely understood, as Deu 4:11; Eze 27:4; Mat 12:40; or through his body; which might be, and yet the wounds not mortal.
While he was yet alive, or, yet he continued alive, i.e. the darts did not despatch him, and therefore they smite him again, and kill him, 2Sa 18:15.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
14. he took three darts . . . andthrust them through the heart of AbsalomThe deed, partiallydone by Joab, was completed by his bodyguard. Being a violation ofthe expressed wish, as well as of all the fond paternal feelings ofDavid, it must have been deeply offensive to the king, nor was itever forgotten (1Ki 2:5); andyet there is the strongest reason for believing that Joab, in doingit, was actuated by a sincere regard to the interests of David, bothas a man and a monarch.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Then said Joab, I may not tarry thus with thee,…. It is not worth while to talk with thee any longer, nor must I lose time, and neglect my opportunity; I do not desire you to go and smite him, I will go and do it myself:
and he took three darts in his hand; or three rods, which were either all iron, or however the tops of them were iron spikes:
and thrust them through the heart of Absalom; or through the midst of his body; for if he had thrust through his heart, properly speaking, he must have died instantly, whereas he seems to have lived after this:
while he [was] yet alive; Joab found him alive when he came to him, and so he was when he thrust his darts through him; and so he was afterward; for the words may be rendered, “being yet alive”, even after the darts were fixed in him, and even so deeply as to pierce through his body:
in the midst, or “heart”,
of the oak; into which the darts penetrated.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Joab replied, “Not so will I wait before thee,” i.e., I will not leave the thing to thee. He then took three staffs in his hand, and thrust them into Absalom’s heart. is rendered by the lxx and Vulgate, , lanceas ; and Thenius would adopt accordingly, as an emendation of the text. But in the earlier Hebrew only occurs in poetical writings in the sense of a missile or dart (Job 33:18; Job 36:12; Joe 2:8); and it is not till after the captivity that we find it used to denote a weapon generally. There is no necessity, however, for altering the text. Joab caught up in his hurry the first thing that he found, namely pointed staff, and pierced Absalom with them to the heart. This explains the reason for his taking three, whereas one javelin or dart would have been sufficient, and also the fact that Absalom was not slain, notwithstanding their being thrust at his heart. The last clause of the verse belongs to what follows: “Still living (i.e., as he was still alive) in the midst of the terebinth, ten young men, Joab’s armour-bearers, surrounded him, and smote him to death.”
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(14) I may not tarry thus.Joab evidently feels the home-thrusts made by the man in the argument, but, determined on his deed of violence, he sees that it is worse than useless to delay. His act was simply murder. In a lawless age it was defensible as the one act which terminated the rebellion and made a renewal of it impossible, and destroyed a traitor and would-be parricide who was likely otherwise to escape punishment; but it was a distinct disobedience of express orders, and Joabs taking the execution into his own hands was wilful and deliberate murder.
Three darts.The word means a rod or staff. Also the word heart is the same as the following word midst, and is not therefore to be taken too literally. Joab seized such sticks as were at hand in the wood and thrust them into Absalom, giving him most painful and probably mortal wounds, but not instantly killing him. Then (2Sa. 18:15) the ten men who had Joabs armour and weapons came up and finally killed Absalom.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
14. I may not tarry I have no time to lose in thus talking with thee, and am not thus careful to obey the king in this matter. Absalom’s life, says Clarke, “was quadruply forfeited to the law. (1) In having murdered his brother Amnon; (2) In having excited an insurrection in the state; (3) In having taken up arms against his own father, (Deu 21:18; Deu 21:21😉 (4) In having lain with his father’s concubines. Lev 18:29. Long ago he should have died by the hand of justice.” But we cannot, with Clarke and others, denounce this act of Joab as a cowardly murder, base and disloyal. True, he disobeyed the king, but he felt it a duty to disobey. He was too much of a warrior and statesman to think that the rebellion could be successfully subdued without the death of Absalom, and he afterwards vindicated himself before David with a severity of rebuke which the king dared not gainsay or resist. 2Sa 19:1-8.
Yet alive Compare note on 2Sa 18:10.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2Sa 18:14. And he took three darts, &c. Joab’s killing Absalom was a direct, deliberate, cowardly murder, and a treasonable murder too against the express orders of the king, and in open defiance and contempt of him.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
2Sa 18:14 Then said Joab, I may not tarry thus with thee. And he took three darts in his hand, and thrust them through the heart of Absalom, while he [was] yet alive in the midst of the oak.
Ver. 14. And thrust them through the heart of Absalom. ] In which execution of this arch-rebel, contrary to David’s charge, whether Joab did well or ill, the doctors are divided. I think he did well for the main; though he might have some mixed motives in it. Absalom was incorrigible, a great murderer, and a parricide, whom though he had now escaped, yet vengeance would not have suffered long to have lived. Selymus, the great Turk, struck with a most loathsome and incurable disease, ended his days at Chiurbus with an untimely and tormenting death, where he had joined battle with his own father, Bajazet, A.D. 1511; God in the same place with revenging hand taking just punishment for his detestable disloyalty towards his aged father. a
a Turk. Hist.
darts = clubs. Hebrew. shebet, a club with a long spike at the end. Still used in Palestine.
with thee: Heb. before thee
thrust them: 2Sa 18:5, Jdg 4:21, Jdg 5:26, Jdg 5:31, Psa 45:5, 1Th 5:3
midst: Heb. heart, Mat 12:40
Reciprocal: 2Sa 12:10 – the sword 2Sa 18:9 – his head 2Sa 19:1 – General 2Sa 19:10 – is dead 2Sa 23:5 – Although 1Ki 2:5 – Joab 1Ki 2:28 – Joab had 1Ch 3:2 – Absalom Job 20:25 – drawn Psa 35:8 – into Psa 55:15 – Let death Psa 119:96 – I have seen Pro 30:17 – eye Gal 3:13 – for
2Sa 18:14-15. I may not tarry thus with thee I must not lose time in contending with thee, till I let the occasion slip. And thrust them through the heart of Absalom Not through the part properly so called, (for then he would have died immediately, and there would have been no need for his soldiers to fall upon him as they afterward did, 2Sa 18:15,) but through the midst of his body, which did not kill him outright, but some life still remained in him. Ten young men that bare Joabs armour Who waited upon his person as general of the army; smote Absalom and slew him By Joabs command, who probably judged that there could be no safety to the king, nor peace to the kingdom, nor security to himself, and Davids friends and other loyal subjects, or to any good men, if Absalom was suffered to live. For he thought that some unquiet people, who were deeply engaged in this rebellion, would soon take occasion to move new disturbances to set him on the throne, which Absalom would be very ready to encourage. Therefore, knowing that he had been guilty of several crimes which the law of God made capital, especially of committing incest with his fathers concubines, and raising an unnatural rebellion against him, with a design to rob him both of his kingdom and his life; Joab did, not as David commanded, but as, he imagined, he ought to have commanded. Thus fell, says Delaney, this cruel, this murderous, this incestuous parricide! and with him, twenty thousand of his rebel adherents. So much mischief may one restless, interested man do in his country! and such ruin may his ambition bring upon it! We do not, however, intend, by these observations, to plead Joabs justification in the act of direct disobedience to his sovereigns orders, but leave the reader to form his own judgment of the matter.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments